UK Arts on Huffingtonpost UK

Sumeet Grover: Genesis by Sebastião Salgado: Exhibition Review

2013-05-19T11:36:19Z

Genesis, an unfathomable eight-year long work, that took the Brazilian documentary photographer Sebastião Salgado to 32 countries, explores the earth in the way it must have originated and the way its vast undiscovered stretches have remained untouched

Ana Tzarev: Love Alive in Art: The Passion of Lovers

2013-05-18T12:45:43Z

My Lovers sculpture emerged as a tribute to the transforming power of Love. I was moved to capture Love as a timeless and elemental force, the eternal pull of a tide drawing two people together.

Stephen M. Baker: Capturing the Best Holiday Snaps

2013-05-16T07:02:00Z

There's no doubt about it having beautiful imagery and inspiring photos on the walls is a sure way to brighten up a room, make these images personal of your own travels, experiences, and loved ones and you're sure to create a more uplifting home.

Leila Monks: A Bottle of Inspiration Please

2013-05-15T17:15:56Z

So if inspiration is so important - how do we find it? And more importantly - how do we give it to others? Well finding it is easy. It may not be sold on the shelves of Waitrose but it is readily available to those who know where to look.

Adrian Teal: Anne Damer: Georgian Transvestite, Lesbian, & Sculptress

2013-05-13T09:10:30Z

One dank Saturday afternoon last year, I snapped up the Georgian portrait you see here in a near-empty Northamptonshire junk shop. I haggled him down to £8. Even so, you might think I was robbed, since it is a fairly unremarkable picture. But the lady shown was one of the more interesting characters of the late 1700s.

Thomas Woodham Smith: Life in the Arts Lane - Week 25 - New York, New York

2013-05-13T08:38:08Z

The taxi ride is worth every penny. The traffic, the terrible roads that make the car bounce and shake in a bone jangling fashion, then the bridge and a view of the ultimate shining high rise city. Anybody who is not elated by their arrival into Manhattan is missing a piece of soul.

Ian Watson: Kerry Ellis at the London Palladium a Review

2013-05-13T06:31:29Z

There's no point pretending that I am unbiased in writing this review because you all know that I have personal connections with some of the people in last night's concert so getting all Shentonesque is pointless.

Ben J. Cotton: 'On the Streets' A Weekly Round Up of the Freshest Global Street Art

2013-05-13T04:14:03Z

Our world wide selection of art entitled 'On The Streets'returns this week headlined by a new mural by DALeast. The quickly painted amazingly intricate mural is executed in the artist' s signature 3D technique and is located in East London.

Karen Ruimy: Female Warriors of Art at Tate Modern

2013-05-09T19:00:00Z

As I was sitting at the Buying Committee of the Tate Modern, my eyes were arrested in awe and also complete ignorance by a piece from an artist I did not know about, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian. I was struck by the strength of her art. The fact that she is a woman working in Iran, in her 80s, made her even more striking.

Don Paterson: Poetry and the Transmission of Errors

2013-05-09T09:37:00Z

We often see this with readers who believe poets have hidden messages in their poems. This is the kind of reader who has been taught - often in school - that meaning is something that poets deliberately and sadistically withhold, and that what we have to do to the poem is ... batter a confession out of it.

Deborah C Dooley: Writing Space

2013-05-07T10:57:23Z

'I mean, it's not as if we don't have it,' she said hurriedly. 'Our savings account is very healthy.'
I nodded, forgetting for a moment that she couldn't see me and then hoping that she'd sense my understanding. I felt saddened that like so many others, she felt that the love affair she was having with writing wasn't worthy of her time and money. That she didn't deserve to have this passion in her life.

Thomas Woodham Smith: Week 24 Debate and Debacle

2013-05-07T08:01:56Z

As I walk the week past washes over me. In a weird way I am not only leaving London I am also saying goodbye to the last week. It was an extraordinary week.

B.J. Epstein: Women's Right to Create: Feminism and the Arts

2013-05-03T19:00:00Z

One only needs to look around the world at the terrible situation for many girls and women to realise that feminism is still necessary and vital. But even once females have better living conditions and more rights, feminism still has a role to play as women try to shape careers. Several recent news stories have made it clear that women are way behind when it comes to careers in the arts.

Thomas Woodham Smith: Battersea Decorative Fair - Week 23

2013-04-29T07:28:55Z

If you sell Antiques here you face an uphill struggle. If you sell a 'look' you start at an advantage. There are dealers who strive to achieve both, but it is not easy. It is a sort of Holy Grail. It is a credit to the fair that both strands have their place but the team playing in the old, historic, antique way are definitely the B team.

Bonnie Greer: Open Letter to Maria Miller: I Agree With Your Fellow Tories, Let's Commodify Culture

2013-04-26T19:00:00Z

The fact is, as you know, tourists don't flock to this great country to watch the footie, or eat in the restaurants. They come to visit the stately homes, for example. How much are all the volunteers who work in these places worth? Culture, one industry that is actually growing , has always punched above its weight. It is one of the key factors in making the UK the Number One nation in the world for the arts.

Zion Lights: Can You Make Art Without Oil?

2013-04-25T19:00:00Z

Oil companies aren't known for their ethics. Last month an ExxonMobil pipeline spill in Mayflower, Arkansas, wreaked havoc in the small town, destroying people's houses, gardens and local wildlife. It doesn't fill you with confidence that the oil industry's investment in a fragile area of British culture can be trusted.

Ronnie Wood: For Me, My Art's Just Another Way to Express Myself

2013-04-24T19:00:00Z

I think people are 'just creative' and this can be expressed in a number of ways. Bob Dylan and David Bowie create both music and art. Michelangelo could paint and sculpt. For me, it's just another way of expressing myself. One of the artists I admire most is Caravaggio. I saw some of his recently discovered treasures, where he had used oil paint which left exposed raw, unfinished panels of chalk drawing. I tried to recreate something similar for a piece in my recent exhibition, but I'm not sure I've quite done him justice!

Maria Miller: Testing Times: Fighting Culture's Corner in an Age of Austerity

2013-04-24T09:23:36Z

It almost goes without saying that the arts have an intrinsic value - the 'arts for arts sake' argument has been made countlessly and convincingly. But, clearly we are living in tough times - and we therefore need to make sure that the incredible instrumental potential of culture is both appreciated and maximised.

Does The Arts Have 'Economic Value'?

2013-04-24T02:45:47Z

The arts world has to stress its "economic impact" if it is to come through the next round of government cuts successfully, Culture Secretary Maria Mi...

Thomas Woodham Smith: Life in the Arts Lane - Week 22

2013-04-22T12:29:47Z

Naples is always a shock and a surprise. The mess and the chaos on the streets disguise a systematic way of life that is probably unchanged for 3000 years.

Stuart Forster: Saloua Raouda Choucair Exhibition Opens at the Tate Modern, London

2013-04-18T15:50:07Z

Choucair, who still lives in Beirut, developed passionate interests in architecture, Islamic art, and then Western abstract art. These influence her work.

Mark Perryman: Spring Books Into Action

2013-04-19T19:00:00Z

As the Thatcher funeral hoopla fades away and the focus shifts to the likely rout of the Con-Dems in the 2 May local elections the political landscape outside the Westminster bubble in the next few months is likely to be further shaped by the deepening impact of the cuts.

Clare Wiley: Critic on Stage: Showtime

2013-04-18T09:30:01Z

Several months ago I decided to spend £70 on nine contemporary dance classes. I gave it pretty much no thought beyond: 'this could improve my writing' and 'this would give me something to do on a Monday night besides steadily, doggedly working my way through All The Netflix'.

Controversial Thatcher Exhibition Opens On Day Of Funeral

2013-04-13T09:39:50Z

An art gallery in London has channelled the divided views over Margaret Thatcher by opening an exhibition on the day of her funeral.

Thatcheristic,...

Thomas Woodham Smith: Life in the Arts Lane - Week 21 Spring Has Finally Sprung

2013-04-15T08:24:24Z

Spring has finally sprung. Admittedly there is the worrying, nagging doubt that another cold wet snap lurks like some mugger round the next corner. But heh, let's enjoy the aroma of warmth and the effulgent budding of the trees.